Noise rock is a style of
rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates
atonality and especially
dissonance, and frequently discards typical songwriting conventions. Noise rock developed from early
avant-garde music,
sound art, and rock songs featuring extremely dissonant sounds and electronic
feedback. The New York
no wave scene, featuring such artists as
Mars and
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks in the late 1970s, was an essential development in noise rock. A number of noise rock bands emerged in
North America in the 1980s. These included
Caroliner, and
Grotus (San Francisco),
Big Black (Chicago),
Butthole Surfers,
The Jesus Lizard,
Scratch Acid (Texas),
The Melvins (Montesano, Washington),
Dinosaur Jr. (Massachusetts),
Sonic Youth,
Live Skull,
Swans,
White Zombie, The Thing, Blow 454 and
Helmet (New York),
Pussy Galore and
Royal Trux (Washington DC), among many others.